We received this post from Alexander Leo-Hansen:
Wine and food go hand in hand when it comes to having a great dinner. They complement each other, and if you’ve spent hours crafting the perfect meal, you certainly shouldn’t drink just any wine—a good wine can make already excellent food many times better. To achieve the best result, you should carefully consider which type of wine you are drinking with the type of food being eaten.
The wine tastes best when it has been properly treated before serving, so you shouldn’t just find and buy the perfect wine; you should also consider how to store it. Here you can read more about wine storage. When wine has been properly stored, it tastes much better, but which wine should you choose? It all depends on what you are eating. One wine might work perfectly with one dish, while it would taste completely wrong with another.
Fish
Which wine to drink when fish is on the table depends greatly on the type of fish being served. If you are eating white fish, which is often served with a sauce or dressing, you can advantageously choose a rich wine, such as a wine made from the Chardonnay grape. If the fish dish is robust but without lemon, a wine from Australia, South Africa, or the USA would be a good choice, while a light and mild fish dish pairs well with a wine that has a slight acidic taste. Shellfish are often drizzled with lemon, so if that’s what you’re eating, the wine should also have a hint of acidity. Here, a wine from a cooler region is the perfect choice; for example, a wine from Germany or Austria.
Poultry
When poultry is on the menu, both red and white wine can be used, and here the choice mainly depends on which you prefer. If you’re opting for a white wine, it should preferably be full-bodied, while the red wine should be relatively light; wines from countries like Chile are a very sensible choice.
Meat
Meat can be many different things, and each type of meat pairs best with a specific wine. Here we focus on lamb and beef. Lamb is often eaten as a flavorful dish with many herbs, making a full-bodied wine a perfect choice—this could include a wine from Spain, a good Bordeaux, or an Italian wine. Beef is rich in protein and robust, so a strong wine pairs well with it. The wine can have a bit of age to it, and wines from overseas, Italy, and Spain pair very well with a dish that includes beef.
Dessert
Desserts are often very sweet, and as a rule of thumb, the wine served with the dessert should be as sweet as the dessert itself. If chocolate is part of the dish, a fortified wine like Port or a French wine like Banyuls is a good choice. Alternatively, you can choose a Recioto wine from Italy, which comes in both red and white varieties. If the dessert consists of fruit or ice cream, you can choose a wine made from the fruits included in the dessert, but if you prefer not to, a sweet German or Italian wine are good options.
Serve wine at the right temperature
It’s one thing to find the perfect wine for the meal, but to get the wine to have the right taste, you must ensure it is served at the right temperature. Which temperature the wine tastes best at completely depends on the type of wine. As a rule, ensure that red wines are served between 14 and 18 degrees Celsius, while a light white wine tastes best at 6-8 degrees Celsius, and a fuller-bodied white wine is perfect at 12-14 degrees Celsius. If you want more information about the perfect serving temperature, you can read much more about serving temperatures for wine.